As drugs move through development, pharmaceutical brand teams shift more
than one quarter of their market research spending allocations to
advertising and promotions, according to a new study by Cutting Edge
Information.

To compete in today’s pharmaceutical market place, drug manufacturers
pay particular attention to brands’ commercialization efforts between
Phase 3 trials and the six months following launch. Brand teams develop pharmaceutical
marketing mix strategies that effectively support their brands’
needs through the commercialization period. While no two strategies will
look alike, there are trends that carry across successful
commercialization spending mixes.

“Launching
Pharmaceutical Brands: Formulas for Commercialization Success,” a
recent study from Cutting Edge Information, found between Phase 3a and
market approval for US launches, brand teams allocated an average of
20.8% of their spending to decision support and 34.6% to advertising and
promotion. Decision support allocation drops to 14.3% during the market
approval to launch period, and again to 7.4% from launch to six months
post-launch. Conversely, advertising allocations rise to 40.6% during
market approval to launch and 53.8% from launch to six months
post-launch.

“Typically, all of the necessary market
research spending is exhausted prior to launch, with only minimal
amounts necessary for continued coverage,” explains David Richardson,
senior research analyst at Cutting Edge. “This leaves the majority of
funding available for providing the brand the best marketing support to
garner the greatest market share within its first six months following
launch.”

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